Models of Word Identification

Abstract

This chapter first describes the tasks that are used to study how readers identify printed words (e.g., the lexical-decision task) and then reviews the key empirical findings related to skilled and impaired word identification (i.e., dyslexia). As explained, these findings have both motivated the development of computer models of word identification and been used to evaluate the explanatory adequacy of those models. The chapter then reviews several precursor theories and models of word identification that provide recurring metaphors (e.g., generating word pronunciations via analogy vs. the application of rules) in the development of later, more formally implemented word-identification models. The chapter reviews a large representative sample of these models in the order of their development, to show how the models have evolved in response to empirical research and the need to accommodate new findings (e.g., how the letters in words are perceived in their correct order). The chapter concludes with an explicit comparative analysis of the word-identification models and discussion of the findings that each model can and cannot explain.